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Clever Kitchen Switch Ups Using Viva® Vantage® Paper Towels

October 29, 2015 by Sandra 9 Comments

I’m excited to be working in collaboration with Viva® Towels on this sponsored blog post. I truly love the way
the Viva® Vantage® paper towel stretches to scrub everyday messes. 🙂

Paper towels are one of those must-have items in our home.

Why? Well, because my husband, kids, and I use them every single day to cleanup in so many different ways. I know that there are some families out there who can live without paper towels, and to them I’d say the same thing I’d say to families who keep their houses free of absolutely all clutter: more power to you. 🙂

That is not me. I’ve accepted this fact, and I’ve embraced my laid-back, paper-towel-loving, Type B personality in recent years. It’s who I am.

Plus, we’re a homeschooling family of seven, which means we spend a lot of time at home, and we need a good, reliable paper towel to take care of our everyday messes.

Viva® Vantage® Live Event

Now we’d been using a brand of paper towels that I thought worked just fine, but after attending a fun Viva® Vantage® live event last week, I decided to switch up our normal routine by trying Viva® Vantage® paper towels for seven days to see what I may have been missing with my regular brand of paper towels.

By the way, the event was amazing! I learned about Viva® Vantage®, tried them for myself, ate delicious food, and enjoyed a great time with blogging friends.

I vlogged my experience, and you can check out that video here:

The Great Scrubbing Power of Viva® Vantage®

One of the ways I found you can use Viva® Vantage® is as a fruit and vegetable scrubber. It does a fantastic job! At the event, I scrubbed my apple clean so that I could make a homemade caramel apple. 🙂

At home, we’re going to use Viva® Vantage® to scrub our carrots and other veggies. We’ve started juicing again and like to leave the skins on our veggies for added nutrition, so the stretchy-strength of Viva® Vantage® is going to come in handy on juicing days.

Here are more clever kitchen switch ups you can try using Viva® Vantage®:

Instead of a bulky colander, use a paper towel. Place fruits and veggies on a sheet of Viva® Vantage® paper towels and wash under running water. The Viva® Vantage® paper towel will function as a strainer, and the added bonus is that you won’t have to wash a colander afterward. 🙂
Keep refrigerated produce fresh longer by wrapping a paper towel around it to soak up excess moisture.
Hand wash and dry delicate glassware using the cloth-like texture of Viva® Vantage® paper towels. This is one of the ways I love using these paper towels, and they get the job done without leaving behind little fibers…unlike my old brand.
Chill drinks quickly using Viva® Vantage®. Simply wrap a damp paper towel around the drink and put in the freezer to chill faster.
Slip a damp paper towel under your cutting board to prevent it from shifting. The sponge-like absorbency of Viva® Vantage® will also be there to absorb excess water that runs off the cutting board from freshly washed fruits and veggies while you’re chopping.

Overall, I think Viva® Vantage® paper towels get the job done and beyond. They get a big ‘thumbs up’ from this mom. 🙂

You can experience the stretchy-strength and great scrubbing power of Viva® Vantage®, recently named a 2015 Product of the Year, by printing off a coupon and taking your own 7-Day Switch Up challenge with Viva® Vantage® here.

Then after experiencing Viva® Vantage®, you can revisit the website to talk about your switch and enter for a chance to instantly win a $100 gift card.

What’s your favorite way to use
paper towels?

This is a sponsored blog post written by me on behalf of Viva® Vantage®.

Our Fun Disney Kids Preschool Playdate

December 9, 2014 by Sandra 6 Comments

Thanks to Walt Disney World Resort and MomSelect for the fantastic party kit I received to create a truly memorable Disney Kids Preschool Playdate. #DisneyKids #DisneySide

There are two things that I love — getting together with family and talking about Disney World!

So we were incredibly excited to host a little preschool playdate and invite my sister over with her two preschool-aged children. 🙂

Even though Sarah (my sister) and I live close by, we both work from home, have kids that keep us busy, and simply don’t have time to get together as often as we’d like to.

Disney Kids Preschool Playdate

For the playdate, Disney sent us a kit that turned a simple playdate into an amazing day to remember. It was filled with Jake and the Never Land Pirates themed items that made our time together fun and extra-special.

Toys, Snacks, Lunch, and Games

The playdate started with the kids making sure they each had a few small pirate toys to play with. For easy locating, we made sure to put each child’s toys on their plate at the table.

This was followed by delicious, kid-friendly snacks. My kids were elated to have fruit snacks, because they’re a rare treat in our home. They loved the chocolate chip protein bars, too.

The Crunchmaster crackers were gone in sixty seconds. Well, not literally, but they didn’t last long! Seriously, good! 🙂

The kids enjoyed a super simple lunch of popcorn chicken and fries, and at some point, I remember giving them all their very own Disney luggage tags. 😉

The luggage tags were a hit and went along well with the Disney World video we had going during the playdate.

We did a variety of things for fun and games. But I think the favorite activities had to be playing Disney bingo, building a Mega Bloks truck, and creating with Kinetic Sand!

By the way, out of all the different “sands” we’ve tried over the years, Kinetic Sand is my favorite. It’s EASY to clean up and doesn’t make a huge mess like the other ones we’ve used in the past.

While the kids played, it was great to be able to catch up with my sister and talk about my family’s Disney trips.

Sarah has never been to Disney World (my first visit there was when I was 29-years-old), but she wants to take her little ones sometime soon. I shared some of my best tips with her and talked about what an awesome vacation spot Disney is for families.

The preschool playdate turned out ~~to be like five hours long~~ better than I’d expected.

Judging from all the smiles, I think everyone involved had a fabulous time. 🙂

Who would you invite to a Disney Preschool Playdate? What’s your favorite Disney memory?

Thanks again to Disney and MomSelect for the fantastic party kit I received for our #DisneyKids playdate.

Disney PLANES: Printables, Activities, Family Time, and More!

July 10, 2014 by Sandra 4 Comments

I’m working with Disney to share fun ways families can get excited about the new PLANES Fire & Rescue movie
that will be in theaters starting July 18, 2014. #FireAndRescue

We love Disney movies.

Who doesn’t?

I know that we’re obviously not alone, because when we placed a library hold on the movie Frozen, (if I remember correctly) there were well over 100 people ahead of us. Crazy.

Ruben had taken four of our kids to see that particularly awesome movie while it was in theaters and which happened to be when David and I couldn’t leave the hospital during his transplant last December.

They liked the movie so much that they wanted us ALL to be able to sit down and watch it together as a family. We finally did and, of course, I loved it.

Disney has Another Movie Coming Out in Theaters

In the not-too-distant-future, on July 18th, 2014, Disney is releasing yet another film that is sure to delight your kids! The upcoming new movie is PLANES Fire & Rescue, and because of the new release, we decided to get excited about PLANES ahead of time with a Planes-themed family time event that took place right in our living room. 🙂

To make this time extra-special, I put on my thinking cap, searched Pinterest, and finally settled on these four airplane-themed snacks:

1. “Baggage” filled with freshly popped popcorn
2. Cotton candy “clouds”
3. Classic “airplane” peanuts
4. PLANES fruit snacks – a rare treat for my kids

Let’s just say that the snacks were a big hit. We ate them while we watched the first PLANES movie that’s currently out on DVD.

Just a side note: My oldest son, who is 14-years-old, wasn’t incredibly excited that we’d be watching a movie he thought was for little kids. However, in the end, he sat through the entire movie and liked it!

We had a great time together taking in the movie and eating the airplane-themed snacks. I need to remember to plan these little extra-special things more often.

More Ways to Get Excited about the New Movie

Below you can take a peek at the Planes Fire & Rescue Trailer

Thunder – Planes: Fire & Rescue Trailer on Disney Video

And if you visit the Disney Planes website, you’ll find a ton of good stuff there. You can also find printables, games, and crafts on a separate Disney Planes Fire & Rescue website.

The activities on both of the sites mentioned above are totally free to download.

Here’s a peek at what’s there:

If you click on any of the three Planes images above, you’ll be able to download and print those particular activities and coloring pages.

Also, you can stay up-to-date on the Disney Planes movies and more by visiting the Facebook page or by following Disney Pictures on Twitter.

Are you planning on seeing the new Planes movie? What’s your favorite Disney film (or character)?

Sleep Tips for Babies, a Pampers Overnight Diaper, a Twitter Party, AND a Giveaway!

November 6, 2013 by Sandra 50 Comments

This review was made possible by Double Duty Divas and Pampers. I was provided the featured product free of charge to facilitate my review, but all opinions are 100% mine.

I love the one day of the year when I truly get an extra hour in my day.

It makes such a difference when I’ve stayed awake until 3:00am the night before desperately trying to finish a blog post before the deadline.

IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. 😉

But while I benefit from the end of daylight savings time, my baby girl can get thrown off when it comes to her sleep schedule. Maybe you have the same problem with your little ones.

If so, you’re not alone. Over half of moms (52%) feel that their baby’s sleep patterns are thrown off when the clocks fall back and daylight savings time ends.

Pampers, a popular diaper brand, wants to help.

An Infographic Inspired by Moms
Pampers actually interviewed over 9,000 moms about what was important for their baby and found that over and over moms mentioned that they needed a diaper that allowed their baby to sleep through the night by providing exceptional overnight protection.

This infographic explains how a dry diaper helps baby sleep through the night, which, in turn, means mom can sleep through the night.

That’s always good.

Pampers realized that when daylight savings time ends and sleep schedules go out the window, moms need one less problem to deal with, so they designed a diaper that offers up to 12 hours of overnight protection.

This means that pretty much no matter what time baby falls asleep, her pj’s should be dry in the morning.

A Few Sleep Tips

Here are 3 tips to help make the transition even easier:

Make sure that your children know when it’s time to sleep; rely on your normal bedtime routine.

If you have a child who starts getting up before 6:00am, make sure that you respond to the early risings quickly and consistently.

Make sure that you watch your baby for sleepy cues carefully, and be sure to change your baby’s diaper right before a nap or bedtime.

And now for the Giveaway!
ONE very excited reader will win a Pack of Pampers Baby Dry Diapers and a pair of Children’s Place PJ’s. The winner will be able to select their preferred diaper size (2-5) and the gender and size of the Children’s Place PJ’s. 🙂

How to Enter the Giveaway

Simply enter this giveaway using the Rafflecopter below. I’ve included options for extra entries, too!

This giveaway will run from now until – November 14th at 12:00am. The giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above. The winner will be randomly chosen. I will promptly send the winner an email notifying them that they’ve won, and the winner must respond within 48hrs. of the giveaway’s end, otherwise I will have to draw a new winner.

Enter Below
a Rafflecopter giveaway

A #PampersSleepChat Twitter Party!
I love Twitter parties, and Pampers is going to be throwing a fun party tomorrow, November 7th, at 9:00pm EST.

We’ll be chatting about how the end of Daylight Savings Time can affect sleep patterns and The Sleep Lady, Kim West, will be sharing tips on easing the transition.

You can join in the fun and RSVP here.

Twitter Party Prizes include:

$50 AMEX Gift Card, $25 Children’s Place Gift Card, Pampers product and book by Kim West.

$100 AMEX Gift Card, Pampers Product, series of books by Kim West

Grand Prize: $500 AMEX Card to purchase sleep items such as a new crib, video monitor, etc.

To participate, follow your hosts @DoubleDutyDivas, @BridgetteLA, @CeceliaMecca @AngieKcom @WhatMommiesNeed @RamblingChick, sleep expert @TheSleepLady and our sponsor @Pampers.

Do your kids transition well when the time changes? As a mom, do you look forward to the time change or dread it?